Smashed up trucks and Ayn Rand....

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Good Morning Friends,

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today is Thursday June 18, 2009

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Good morning friends. I was going to mention Ayn Rand this morning since I accidentally came across her on You Tube. She is the famous philosopher you may recall who wrote the novels Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. She is noted for her rugged individualism as it relates to philosophy and just what the influence of the state should be in our lives, which is near zero according to her. She thinks that the state spends too much time on helping poor and disadvantaged people, whereas it should be helping the more gifted individuals instead. So, she is not big on socialism at all and she thinks that states are misdirected if they waste too much time trying to correct societal problems. By the way, she was born in Czarist Russia in 1905. She does not like Russia. I believe Allan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Bank chief, was one of her fans if I am not mistaken.

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I have never seen the woman speak before and I can assure you that I was rather taken aback by her views. She is an atheist such as myself, but I did not know that she held such strong opinions regarding the weak in our society. I have included for you one segment of a five part interview that she did on the Phil Donohue show back in the late 1970's, it sounds lie the late 70's from the conversation. They mention President Carter and Iran quite a bit, so I am assuming that this is the time period involved. You can easily access the other segments if you are interested, but this segment below is concerned with her atheism. I am surprised that the audience was so kind to her actually, especially in religious America. I am sure there must have been lots of Christians in the audience, and if I am not mistaken, Phil himself is a Catholic..Another interesting item in these videos are her views on the Middle East states. She feels that the oil, or more accurately, the fruits of that oil, because of U.S. technology used to get it should belong to the United States. The topic came about because of nationalization talk by the oil producing states. The Arabs don't deserve it ( the oil ) since it has been in the ground for centuries and they did not do anything about it. So, in a way she is saying that the oil belongs to the U.S. Some in the audience appreciated this viewpoint. I am sure George Bush and all of the rest of the neocons would love her. I found some of her views somewhat harsh when I heard them. Again, the video below is the one focusing on her atheism.

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Another item that I want to tell you about this morning is a dream that I just had. It was quite a powerful dream and it involved my new truck. I had taken it in for servicing and I remember acting somewhat arrogantly while I was waiting in the dealership. I have done that in the past and arrogance forms part of my behavior sometimes actually. But, this behavior has a way of getting back at you. I guess it relates to the old maxim: what goes around comes around or something similar to that idea.. Anyway, I remember that I was supposed to meet my friends at the racetrack, so I was worried that the truck would not be ready on time. This detail was not an important detail of the dream, however. But, I remember that I kept waiting and waiting and the truck was still not ready. Somebody from the dealership had taken it out on the road somewhere and that is why things were delayed and why I was not getting my truck back. I remember talking to various employees in the truck dealership and they would have been exposed to my personality and my concerns. Sure enough the call in later on that the truck and been in an accident so that means that things would be delayed and I would not make the racetrack on time. The thing about the dream is that nobody seemed overly concerned about me and my truck. Nobody cared if I got it back or some replacement vehicle or anything for that matter. They did not care. Maybe this was the payback for my behavior or that is how I thought about it anyway. They did not like me and that is why they were treating me like that. I remember saying that I was going to sue them and the girl who smashed up my truck. Not big time suing, but just two thousand or so because that would be the depreciation loss for me when it came time to sell the vehicle. I remember one time I had a pickup that was involved in an accident and when I traded it in they held this fact against me; a vehicle with a ' declaration ' of damage on it is harder to sell to a customer because people are naturally leery about vehicles involved in accidents. So, I wanted to recover the money that I knew that I would lose in the future. Anyway, nobody tried to help me by offering me a replacement vehicle or help in any way at all. They just all went about their business and nobody was overly concerned about me all the way up to the end of the dream

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The weather started out poorly yesterday after some rain overnight, but then it turned out much better in the afternoon, so that was OK by me of course. Anyway, I have to start thinking about a song of the day for you. I wonder if there is anything left in 1968 that is worth listening to.

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Here is a song that was played all of the time now that I recall. This is a live appearance so the record sound differently than this, but here it is anyway.

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Dionne Warwick

Do You Know the Way to San Jose

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1968

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